Nearly 100,000 BT Users are Involved in Illegal File Sharing, Says BPI
British Telecom, a leading internet service provider in the UK, has been accused by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) of allowing illegal downloading and assenting to online piracy. Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive of the BPI, while talking to the Mirror, categorically stated that this attitude adopted by BT towards online piracy is appalling and condemnable. He added that all service providers should understand they share the responsibility of running a network that is free of piracy, and that if there is any diversion, the same should be punished in order to bring defaulters to book and discouraging further misuse.
The fact that BT has allowed nearly 100,000 users to indulge in online piracy and has done nothing to prevent it is disgraceful, according to the BPI. The organization has based its entire accusation on the IP addresses of the defaulters that it collected. However, the source of such information is not known.
A BT spokesperson, on the other hand, maintained that not all peer-to-peer applications are illegal in nature, as some are needed to play online games, and hence identifying illegal activity is very difficult. Moreover, if the company were to adopt a strict stance towards online piracy, its action would translate into infringing the privacy of the users, which would not be acceptable by the customer.
While addressing Your Money Government, a BT spokesperson had earlier clarified that intrusion into the internet usage of the subscribers in order to monitor the extent of online piracy and to prevent it would lead to annual increase of £24 in the bills of customers.
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